A player came into the lottery’s main office yesterday with a stack of tickets to cash and when it all was done, she’d won a total of $45,250. It’s something we see a few times a year in our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, and it’s always eye-catching!
The Des Moines woman won 15 prizes of at least $3,000, all in the same Pick 4 drawing. She bought 15 plays for the Pick 4 evening drawing on May 4, and on each ticket she chose the same numbers: 1-0-1-9.
Our Pick 4 and Pick 3 games have drawings twice a day, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. Both games are different than our other games that have drawings (like Powerball® and Mega Millions®) because you as the player choose the type of play you want to make. And that decision determines the prize you can win.
How You Play Makes A Difference
The Des Moines winner shows the impact that choice can make.
On 14 of her tickets, she bought a 50-cent play, the lowest-cost option available, and bet that she’d win only if the numbers on her ticket matched the winning numbers in the exact order they were selected in the drawing. And her numbers came through: On each of those tickets, she won a prize of $3,000.
On her final ticket, she bought a $1 play and bet that she could win by matching the winning numbers in the exact order drawn or in any order. And she won both ways, for a total of $3,250 on that ticket!
The Lingo Involved
It’s called a straight play when you bet that you’ll win a prize only if you match the winning numbers in the exact order. When you bet that you’ll win by matching the winning numbers in any order, it’s called a box play.
It's harder to match the numbers in the exact order, so the prizes you'll win on a straight play are larger.
What Players Do
Players in both games often choose their own numbers rather than buying easy-pick tickets where the lottery terminal randomly assigns the numbers in the play. And because the players are loyal to their own numbers, when they win, they often hit BIG.
Maybe it’s the “max bet” concept, where they figure if they’re going to win, they want to win big. Maybe they have certain lucky numbers and they just really believe in them. There are probably as many reasons as there are players.
We just know it happens. And when it does, someone ends up with a lot of reasons to celebrate!
Hi, Barbara. Two issues are involved in the question you have asked: withholdings and income taxes. The winner will have to pay income tax on these lottery prizes when she files her income taxes for the 2025 calendar year. Withholdings are applied to lottery prizes of more than $600 when they are claimed. The withholdings are designed to cover the entire tax liability that someone may have for claiming a lottery prize, but the exact tax amount the person will owe is dependent upon their circumstances outside of winning the lottery. For a lottery prize of more than $600, 3.8 percent state withholding applies. For a prize of more than $5,000, an additional 24 percent federal withhold applies. The amounts referenced here apply to each individual prize.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | June 06, 2025 at 09:22 AM
What about taxes? Are they based on each individual ticket? I believe federal taxes come into play at $5,000. The above winner "only" won $3,000, multiple times. Since the total prize amount of aggregated tickets is $45,250, will they have to pay federal taxes? Or not since each ticket prize was below $5,000?
Posted by: Barbara Williams | June 05, 2025 at 08:33 PM
THAT'S JUST AWSOME!! COGRATS TO YOU!
Posted by: BEVERLY JESTER | May 31, 2025 at 06:00 AM